Planes Trains and Automobiles (1987)

November 25, 1987

Film: 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'

By JANET MASLIN

Published: November 25, 1987

LEAD: THE circuitous journey that is embarked upon in John Hughes's ''Planes, Trains and Automobiles'' is supposed to range from New York to Chicago, but its final destination is surprising. The two traveling companions, Neal Page (Steve Martin) and Del Griffith (John Candy), do indeed make it to the Windy

THE circuitous journey that is embarked upon in John Hughes's ''Planes, Trains and Automobiles'' is supposed to range from New York to Chicago, but its final destination is surprising. The two traveling companions, Neal Page (Steve Martin) and Del Griffith (John Candy), do indeed make it to the Windy City, but they also reach the place where confidences are voiced, insecurities are expressed and friendships are formed.

One need not be a student of Mr. Hughes's teen-oriented films (among them ''Sixteen Candles'' and ''Some Kind of Wonderful'') to sense that these are not usually the concerns of middle-aged traveling businessmen. However, Mr. Hughes conceives of this film's adult characters as lost adolescents, and seems to regard their mature status as a terrible burden that they will, with luck, be able to shed. So Mr. Martin, in the film's earlier sections, is the epitome of corporate stiffness, doing most of his acting with his cheek muscles and bristling murderously when someone steals a taxi from him at rush hour. The film is no more comfortable with this exaggerated version of grown-up reserve than it is with the misplaced, confessional pieties that color its conclusion.

The real trouble with ''Planes, Trains and Automobiles,'' which opens today at Loew's Astor Plaza and other theaters, is simpler: there wasn't much of an idea here to begin with, and when Mr. Hughes works with non-teen-age characters he has smaller reserves of colloquial humor upon which to draw. It's harder to have one man complain that traveling with the other is ''like going on a date with a Chatty Cathy doll'' than it would be to have a teen-ager deliver that line. None of Mr. Hughes's earlier films have revolved around anything more complicated than prom dates and parent troubles and getting along with schoolmates, but they had a texture and authenticity that ''Planes, Trains and Automobiles'' lacks.

Mr. Martin and Mr. Candy are an easy twosome to watch even with marginal material, though, and the film is never worse than slow. In fact, it's even promising at first, with the bound-for-trouble promise of a quick trip home for Neal Page, who phones his wife to tell her he'll be there by 10. As a blow-by-blow anatomy of a horrid traveling experience, replete with flight cancellations, snowstorms and unscheduled detours, ''Planes, Trains and Automobiles'' has great potential, but it begins to meander once Neal and Del become a reluctant duo. Neal detests the loud, tirelessly jolly Del on sight. But Fate forces them to share a plane ride, a hair-raising taxi trip and even a bed.

The great, embarrassed flurry of man-talk (''helluva game, helluva game!'') with which these two leap out of bed the next morning is indeed funny, and the film does have its scattered moments. But too often, the audience has as much reason as Del and Neal do to wonder where, if anywhere, they are going.
Easy Riders
PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES, directed by John Hughes; written by Mr. Hughes; director of photography, Don Peterman; edited by Paul Hirsch; music by Ira Newborn; produced by Mr. Hughes; released by Paramount Pictures. At Loews Astor Plaza, Broadway at 44th Street; Loews Orpheum Twin, 86th Street at Third Avenue; Gemini Twin, Second Avenue at 64th Street, and other theaters.